Heart of the Hunter (31 page)

“That depends,” I said.

“On what?”

“On what’s in it for me.”

She looked deeply into my eyes as if trying to read my soul. She was on the verge of tears. She needed my help or she was dead. We both knew it. It had taken a lot for her to ask my help, she was a proud woman and I respected her for that.

But I wouldn’t help her for free. That’s not the way it worked. I needed something from her, and I needed her to offer it.

“Well then,” she said, “I guess I have one more question for you.”

“Ask what you want. Believe me, I’ve got nothing to hide.”

She looked into my eyes. “Are you a good man, Jackson Jones?”

It wasn’t a game. It was a serious question and she meant it. Her life depended on it. I looked around the bar. The bartender was cleaning glasses. The other patrons had scarcely noticed her.

“No one’s ever accused me of being a good man,” I said.

“But you know the answer,” she insisted. “Deep down, you know. If you were to die today, what would people say of you? Would they say you were good?”

I looked into those deep, sapphire eyes. They were hypnotizing. She had a strange power over me, a force of attraction that was otherworldly. Maybe it was because death was on my mind, mortality. I don’t know, but something about her felt surreal, like she’d been sent to me from another world.

As my eyes drank her in, a burning rage coursed through my veins like molten metal. I wanted to own her, I wanted to dominate her completely, make her mine.
My property
. I wanted to plunge my cock so deep inside her she’d never even think of another man again. I wanted her to remember my name to her dying day. I wanted to ruin her for all others. It shocked me how violent my passion for her was. I’d never felt that for anyone else.

The simplicity of her question made me answer honestly.

“All I can tell you,” I said, “is that for all the bad I’ve done, I never meant any harm.”

It wasn’t like me to say that. She’d disarmed me. I never gave anyone a glimpse of my true self. It was yet another surprise.

She nodded, as if it was the answer she’d been seeking. She smiled, and it broke my heart to see that smile. She had the face of an angel, and I was going to ruin her.

I wanted to know what had happened to her. The details. What had Wolf and Los Lobos done to her that she’d finally made a run for it? I’d kill them, all twelve of them, or die trying. She didn’t know it yet, but I’d already made up my mind.

And then she said it, those four words that I’d been waiting my entire life to hear. I didn’t even know it till I heard them.

“Will you help me?”

I’ll tell you right now, there are moments in my life I always knew would come. Even as a boy, I knew my destiny would lead to this, a fork in the road, where the decision I made would decide the man I was to be. Everything else in my life would fade in comparison to the importance of this question.

I knew if I said yes, it would mean the end of me. Instinctively, I checked the gun at my hip. Los Lobos, The Wolves. Every one of them would hunt me down until I was dead.

It would only end in one way.

And I didn’t care. I’d give her what she needed. I had to. But she’d give me what I needed too. A life for a life.

“I’ll warn you right now,” I said, “any help from me won’t come for free. Bad things will happen if I get involved. You’ll regret it. I swear to you.”

“Will you hurt me?” she said.

I wanted to tell her something different. I wanted to tell her I was the man she deserved, someone who would save her and ask nothing in return. I wanted to say I’d take her away to a life of happiness and safety. I wanted to tell her she’d have everything she deserved. But I couldn’t. I’m a lot of things, but I’m no liar.

“I’ll destroy you,” I said. “I’ll take the one thing you’ve got to give, and I’ll drink it up like a desert drinks the rain. I’ll ravage you till you beg me to stop. And then, just when you think you can’t take anymore, I’ll ravage you again.”

I’d given her fair warning. If she still wanted my help, it was on her now. I’d told her I’d take everything she had. But I hadn’t told her the one thing I wanted most. I hadn’t told her she’d give me a son.

She looked at me. She looked around the bar. She turned and looked back at the door, weighing the alternative. Then she answered.

“I don’t have a choice,” she said. “You can take what you want. You can use me to the last drop. Just help me.”

“All right,” I said. “But when the dust settles, remember it was you who came to me.”

“I’ll remember.”

“And I warned you.”

“I won’t forget it.”

“You asked if I’m a good man. The truth is, I’m not a good man. I’m bad. Bad to the bone.”

Chapter 4

Faith

W
HAT I’M ABOUT TO TELL YOU,
it isn’t pretty.

Can I adequately explain it? No.

Can I put it in a way that will make me come across as anything other than a complete whore? I doubt it.

But the truth is more important than perceptions, and the truth is what happened to me, the decisions in my life that led to that fateful night, and the consequences I’ll have to live with till the day I die.

So, the truth.

The truth is, I’d been standing in that motel parking lot for over an hour when Jackson pulled in. I had no idea where I was. All I knew was that I was still in Nevada, and that wasn’t far enough.

It was raining and I was soaked to the skin. I was shivering. I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to. I took shelter under a big sequoia and watched the men who came and went from the bar.

I’d know him when I saw him
—that’s what I told myself. I just had to wait. God would help me. He had to.

And all I had to do was throw away everything I’d ever hoped for, sacrifice myself on the altar of fate, and pray I didn’t get into something even worse than the life I was trying to escape.

It sounds crazy, and maybe it was, but until you’re in that situation, you can’t understand the fear that led me to that parking lot.

Wolf Staten was a powerful man. A ruthless man. He made the rules, and my job was to obey. Earlier that night, he’d told me he was going to lock me up in a secret apartment of his villa. No one but him would ever be able to look at me again. He said it was because he loved me so much, because I was so precious to him.

And a part of me wanted to believe him. As a girl I’d always dreamed of being someone’s princess, of being so desired by a man that he couldn’t bear the thought of other men looking at me. But my life with Wolf wasn’t that. The way he treated me was not the way a prince treated a princess. The longer I stayed, the worse it got. The jealousy and possessiveness eclipsed all else. The violence finally knocked reality into me. There was no room for love in that place. Even locked inside a prison, he’d find reasons to punish me, to brutalize me. And if I ever had his child, that baby’s life would be a living hell.

That’s what gave me the courage to take my life into my own hands. Scarcely two hours earlier, I slipped out of the party he threw in my honor. It was supposed to be my farewell to the world, the last time anyone but him would ever see me.

Fuck. That.

Fuck all of them.

Everyone at that party, all twelve members of Los Lobos, all our so-called friends, knew I was going to be locked up forever. And none of them even batted an eye. None of them raised a finger. In fact, they approved of it. Such was life with Los Lobos. I’d heard rumors before of the men locking away their families, treating their women like prisoners and slaves. I’d refused to believe it. Now I knew it was true. Wolf wanted me to live the rest of my life in a windowless bunker.

Like I already said. Fuck. That.

When I fled the mountaintop villa, I had no idea where I was going. I ran through the forest like a deer hunted by dogs. I fell on the rocks. I slid down the gullies. And when I reached the highway, I didn’t care who picked me up. I didn’t care what direction they were headed. I didn’t ask. I just climbed in and sat silently. I would go anywhere, with anyone. Nothing could be as bad as the life planned for me by Wolf.

Los Lobos is not a nice gang to be mixed up with. They earn their livelihood off the pain and suffering of others. They’re the worst kind of criminals. And the fact I was dating their leader was no one’s fault but my own. It was my own deeds, my own mistakes, that got me into that place. And it would be my own decisions that would get me out. That’s why I decided to do anything that needed to be done to escape.
Anything
.

Slipping into the clutches of Los Lobos had been so simple. And once I was in, there was no way back out. I’d seen the warning signs. I’d realized my mistake long before. Wolf cheated on me, he beat me, he routinely degraded and humiliated me in front of his gang members. He robbed me of all power, silenced my voice, and when he found out I wanted to leave, he built a concrete compound to keep me prisoner.

Until that night. The night I broke free. I couldn’t change the past, but I could change the future.

Within hours of making my decision, I was outside the motel. I didn’t have a penny to my name, no clothes, no belongings, no plan. It was only a matter of time before Wolf’s henchmen found me and brought me back to the hell of their world. I knew that. I could feel my chance at freedom slipping away with every second that passed.

In desperation, I decided to do the only thing I could do. I threw myself at the mercy of fate. I opened myself up to it, made myself vulnerable, and let God decide the outcome.

I asked for the help of a stranger.

All I needed was one good man. One man who was willing to stand up for me. He didn’t have to fight Wolf. He just had to help me escape, give me a ride to the city, or better yet, the border. I’d give him
everything
he asked in return. There had to be a man willing to do that. And if there wasn’t, so be it. Let me die. At least I’d die fighting.

In the hour I stood beneath that sequoia, a number of men walked in and out of the bar. Some were truckers, pulling in from the highway after a long haul. Some were workers, looking for a beer after a long shift. Others looked like drifters, gamblers, criminals, or nothing at all.

They were all men, and I didn’t know what to make of them. Which of them would help me? How would I choose?

I thought I’d know him when I saw him, but I was beginning to have doubts. What if there was no one?

I had only one thing to offer. There’s only one thing men want from a woman in my position. But what if they didn’t want it from me? What if they rejected me?

Maybe that would be for the best. Giving up my body went against everything I believed, everything I held sacred. The only thing that made me even consider it, was the thought of a life of slavery at the hands of Wolf Staten. If the price of freedom was my body, I would pay.

And then
he
arrived. He rolled into the lot on a motorcycle as if chased by the devil himself. I only got a brief glimpse, but I saw enough to know he was the man I was looking for. Muscular build, tattoos on his arms and chest, a shadow of stubble. He was fiercely handsome, but that wasn’t even one of my criteria. I couldn’t afford to be picky. That was a luxury I didn’t have. What I was looking for was a
real
man. A man who would do what needed to be done, whatever that was.

The way this guy walked, the confidence in his stride, the determination on his face, told me I’d found my man.

And there was something else. I’d seen him before. I remembered it the moment I saw him. He’d taunted me, he’d challenged me, and he’d told me he didn’t give a shit about Wolf Staten.

Now, all I had to do was go through with it.

I had to ruin myself, offer up my body, throw away my beliefs, risk my life.

No problem, right?

Chapter 5

Jackson

W
HAT CHANCE DID I HAVE?

My cock raged for her pussy. She was like an image from my own secret fantasies. I wanted to pinch myself just to check I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t have designed a better creature for my seduction. She was everything I wanted, just the way I wanted it. Her blue eyes seemed to drink me in. I ached for her. This beautiful, delicate creature was going to be mine. She was straight up offering herself.

A gift.

I was going to possess her, body and soul, and fill the emptiness of my life with something beautiful—something terrible, and tragic, and heavenly.

She needed help—
real
help. The kind of help that could get a man killed. She needed
me
.

But there was something else.

I needed her too. I needed her like my life depended on it.

Little did she know it, but I was going to take more from her than she ever dreamed. She said she’d give me everything. If only she knew what I had in mind. Whatever price she thought she was paying, she was wrong. She wouldn’t just be mine for the night, she would be mine forever, in ways she couldn’t imagine.

“So you’ve run out on Wolf?” I said.

She nodded.

“It’s not going to be easy to get away from him.”

“I know.”

“The rest of Los Lobos will join the hunt.”

“What choice do I have?” she said, her emotion rising to the surface.

“Relax. You did the right thing. You can’t live your life under the thumb of a man like that.”

“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” she said, tears filling her eyes.

“It’s all right,” I said. “Do you have a plan?”

“I was going to run for the border. I’ll figure something out once I’m across.”

“You don’t know where you’ll go?”

“I don’t have anywhere.”

“Do you have any money?”

She shook her head.

“That’s a terrible plan,” I said. “You won’t get far at all. He’ll find you.”

“That’s not your problem. You’ll just drive me to the border and forget all about me. You’ll have had everything you want from me by then.”

“Will I?”

“You want what everyone wants, right?”

She pulled her skirt up on her thigh, giving me the tiniest glimpse of the black satin of her panty.